I wish I could say I’m a religious person but honestly, I’d be lying my ass off! I can’t even claim to be spiritual as quite frankly, I don’t even know what that means. I know many people claim to be spiritual, as that seems to be a trendy admission these days but what the hell does that even mean?
I always think of spiritual people as those individuals who like to wear sandals while sitting on the floor with their legs crossed, sipping herbal tea and inhaling toxic fumes from the 5 cent incense sticks burning in the corner.
But I do believe in God. I don’t always understand him and/or his actions and am very often angry at him, but I believe there is a God. Also, I’d like to think that when I pass from this pitiful existence there will be more waiting for me than my body rotting in a wooden box buried in the ground – until they dig up my grave in 100 years to make room for a new Apple Store.
Okay, enough background let me get to the real purpose of this blog. Today is October 31st. For a lot of people that means we’re one day past October 30th. However, for millions of kids the world over and for many adults October 31st is Halloween – the celebration that is enthusiastically sponsored by your local dental association and their financial advisors. I see Halloween as a time for my kids to dress up in a costume and go trick or treating. Religious folks, well many of them, see Halloween as the indoctrination of our children into the dark arts. We send them out as innocent, happy go-lucky children to trick or treat and they return a couple of hours later levitating off the ground with their heads spinning around and a Facebook invite from Linda Blair.
Today one of my Facebook friends, who I have a lot of respect for, posted a question regarding Halloween and its relevance and origins. In all fairness he didn’t actually claim it was evil but you could see where his comment was heading. Of course the comments started right away that it was evil, damaging to children etc… basically the same talking points the church uses to discredit anything it doesn’t understand or agree with.
Yes I’m aware Halloween originates from an ancient pagan festival. That was then this is now. It became Christianized and became All Hallows Eve. Over the years it morphed into the tooth rotting holiday it has become. Isn’t that kind of like Christmas? I don’t remember Santa Claus appearing in the nativity scene handing the baby Jesus a present and a mug of hot apple cider. Christmas, for better or worse, has grown from its original Christian beginnings to become a commercialized holiday where the birth of Jesus has become an afterthought. Damn, you can’t even say Christmas now in our politically correct society!
I grew up going to church. Therefore I’m well aware of the indoctrination measures they like to utilize. What I noticed was that everything my church didn’t agree with ………was evil. There were no shades of gray; it was black or white, good or evil. That’s how they saw the world through their half-closed eyes. So intent were they on pointing out everyone else’s flaws they often neglected to notice all of the rotten and morally flawed individuals within their very midst. That’s why in my early teens as I began to question things and received some pretty crappy explanations in return, I decided to divorce myself from the church. I chose to have my relationship with God on my own terms without somebody telling me how I should worship or questioning the goodness of my character.
So for all of those morally and religiously superior individuals who want to bash Halloween as some bacchanalian orgy of devil worship, I hope you don’t take your kids to that evil place known as Disneyworld, the ‘Happiest Place on Earth’, you know………..the Magic Kingdom…….that place with all of those ghosts and witches ………..and that evil bastard wizard, Harry Potter!
Sane Ramblings in an Insane World 